A Family Redeemed
by BeautifulDreamer95
Summary: Maddie never knew she was a witch until she got the letter from Hogwarts. As she goes through her first year she discovers other things that her family has kept secret from her; things that the whole wizarding community knows and despises about them. Can she save her family's reputation? And more importantly, can she finish her first year without falling in love with magic?
1. Finding Out

"What?" Maddie stepped back. Sitting on the sofa before her were her parents, and their solemn expressions quickly told her that they were completely serious. "But..." she protested as her brain worked to process the bombshell that was just dropped onto her. "This can't be true. None of it!"

And there was no way it could be. It was just too weird. Nonsensical. Fantastic! The words "you have magical powers" only ever showed up in movies. Not in real life.

"Madelyn," her mom said gently. She never used Maddie's proper name unless things were serious. "Do you remember when you jumped off the swing a few years ago?" She looked down, her free hand flying up to rest against her chest as even mentioning the event caused her heart to double beat. Especially when she remembered the sheer panic she felt. "You flew much higher than anyone should have. I was so scared, but you landed gently on the ground. And just last month you were wearing makeup before school. I told you to wash it off, but you insisted that you had never put it on."

Maddie remembered. She had feared that her mom would get really angry, because it only made sense that Maddie would have experimented with makeup, given the argument about it the night before. The following morning, Maddie thought that her mother was going to burst when they ran into each other in the hall. But then suddenly, her mother had paled before waving her away while claiming that if she didn't hurry her breakfast would grow cold.

Maddie had spent all day trying to think of a logical explanation, but she didn't own any makeup. And she wouldn't have used her mother's because they had slightly different skin tones. But was she honestly supposed to believe _this?_

Mum looked at dad helplessly. "David? Help, please?"

David shook his head sadly as he replied, "Sorry, Jenny, I can't help you here."

At his honest answer, she then looked at Maddie, holding David's hand and building up her resolve. Her face looked scared but determined, "Maddie, you're a witch."

Maddie felt as if her heart had stopped. How could it be possible? Witches were ugly old hags with warts and green skin. They cackled as they rode on broomsticks through the sky by the light of the full moon. She touched her face, as if she might suddenly find that it was covered in warts. But of course there was nothing. Her legs suddenly felt wobbly, and she sat down on the love-seat behind her with a thud. "But…" She couldn't even complete a sentence now. What was wrong with her? "How…?"

"We knew there a possibility of this happening," Jennifer said while looking at her husband. "But it was a slim chance. I was a Squib who had married a Muggle so the odds-"

"Wait, what?" Maddie looked straight up at her mother. First they told her she was something that didn't even exist, and now they were speaking gibberish. "What the _bloody hell_ are you talking about?"

For once, her mother didn't scold her on her language. She was apologetic, as if _she_ were the one cussing. "I'm sorry. A squib is someone from a magical family who doesn't have any magical powers, and a muggle is a regular human being. Like your friends and classmates."

Maddie barely heard anything after the words "magical family." She stood straight up. "I'm sorry, but did you just say _magical family?_ "

"Maddie," David broke in, seeing that both mother and daughter were on the brink of a mental breakdown. "You come from a long line of witches and wizards on your mum's side of the family. However, since your mother was born without magic abilities, and she married, well, me…" He hesitated. "We knew it could happen, but didn't really believe that it could."

"But…" Maddie opened and closed her mouth several times as the shock of this entire conversation had left her incapable of forming a rational thought. She hadn't experienced anything like this. She stood there with her hands over her face, taking deep breaths for what felt like hours before she could actually say something that made sense. "Okay, so I'm a witch," she finally admitted as she threw her hands up in the air. "But why, exactly, are you only just telling me this now?"

Her mum sat up straight, and made a face like she had forgotten something. She made a little exclamation as she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a letter with a wax seal. "Seriously?" Maddie thought to herself, "those things went out of style at least two hundred years ago."

The look on her mother's face could best be described as a mixture of apology and determination. And Maddie would easily admit that it worried her. "What's in the letter?" she asked suspiciously. Her mother just silently handed her the envelope, and Maddie opened it carefully.

 _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

 _Headmaster: Vitellius Flack_

 _Dear Miss Warner,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Serephone Ewart_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

Maddie read the short letter a few times as her brain tried to process what was read. The piece of paper slipped from her numb fingers, and fell to the floor with a slight brushing sound that seemed to fill the whole room. The blood drained from her face. She could not have named all the emotions running through her if she had tried, but one feeling dominated the others: Fear.

"No." She realized from the reactions in her parent's eyes that her expression was frozen, and she imagined that she looked like a proper wreck. "You… you can't seriously mean…" she squeaked out in disbelief, "you're sending me to a different school?!"

"We have to, Maddie." David rubbed his eyes. "According to your mother, not only is Hogwarts the only magical school in England, it's one of the best out there. They'll be able to help you learn everything you need to know about your abilities, as well as how to keep them under control."

"Okay," Maddie said, trying to forget the fact that her parents seemed not only convinced that she had 'magical powers,' but that they were seemingly alright with sending her to some strange school. "But I can still see my friends, right? I can still be home… Have a normal life, right?" She looked at them desperately.

"It's a boarding school, dear," her mother replied gently. "You would stay there all year, and come home for holidays."

Why was the world spinning all around her? Maddie shook her head to make it stop as warm tears began to prick the corner of her eyes. "No, Mum and Dad, you can't be serious."

Her mother looked miserable. "Maddie, don't you understand -"

"No," she said forcefully, " _you_ don't understand! I _can't_ go to a different school. I'm supposed to be going into seventh year! What about my friends? What about Bridget, and Lucy, and Will…" Oh, Lord. All of her best friends. No, this could _not_ be happening. It had to be some horribly sick nightmare. "I can't just leave them. Please don't make me do this!" She had to blink her eyes to keep the tears from escaping.

"You're going, Madelyn," her father said in his no-nonsense tone. "Someday you'll understand that we are doing this for your own good."

That was the last straw. Maddie's eyes rapidly filled with tears and they fell onto her cheeks. She pressed her lips together tightly. "Damn," her voice was quivering, "Damn, damn, damn, damn, _damn!_ " Her voice rose with each damn, ending on a shriek as she whirled around and raced up the stairs to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Her cheek pressed against her cool pillow after flopping onto her bed. Her mind was pulling in several directions. _This is all happening too fast. My parents are telling me that I'm a witch, that these things actually exist, and now I'm being sent to a different school where I will know absolutely nobody and I'll have to stay there the whole bloody year._

Strangely enough, out of all the things that her brain was trying to process, it hurt less at the thought that she was a witch. Like it decided to accept the most outlandish thing of all so that it could deal with the problem of leaving everything that she loved behind. Maddie hiccuped a few times as she began to compose herself again. Why had she reacted like that? It wasn't like her at all.

There was a light tap at the door. "Maddie, love, I'm coming in, okay? You know that we need to discuss this." After a moment, there was a click as the door opened and then closed softly. The bed sank down slightly and she felt a gentle hand brushing her hair from her face. Maddie bit her lip as she thought about how she treated her parents downstairs. They were trying to explain everything to her when she asked for… No, demanded answers, but she was then quick to cut them off every time.

And now her mother had come upstairs to comfort her? She should be angry with her! Her mother should have been scolding her for her rudeness! But… she was being kind and understanding. Maddie didn't get it!

"Maddie, look at me," her mother gently commanded. Despite herself, Maddie turned her hot, blotchy face up at her mother. "What do you want?"

Her mother sighed. "I know that this must be very hard for you." She paused, remembering an old conversation. "When you were born, my family advised me to tell you all about your magical heritage. I was scared and foolish at the time, so I kept this from you. But now… I guess that they were right."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Maddie said, holding her pillow close. "Don't you think something like that should have been explained to me the moment you and dad felt that I could understand it?"

"Maybe," her mother admitted, "but honestly? I believed that it would be much better if you never knew. I honestly expected… Hoped that you would be born without any magic whatsoever. I didn't want to raise you to think that magic was the normal thing in our family. I didn't want you feeling like a misfit because you couldn't do everything that your cousins were doing - including going to a special school like they do."

"Ugh." Maddie wrinkled her nose. "Why would I want to be like my cousins? Walter is boring and Ed is just plain evil." Then a thought occurred to her, causing her to bolt upwards into a sitting position. "Wait. You're from a magical family… Are you telling me that my aunt and uncle, my cousins, my _grandparents_ can all do magic?"

"And your great-grandparents, and their great-grandparents, as far back as we can remember." Her mother chuckled humorlessly. "I'm sure that there have been others like me in the family, born without magic, but we don't really know of them."

"But how could I not have known? How could they not have told me?"

"Well, they respected our wishes for one thing," her mum said, ruffling Maddie's hair and smirking in that maddening way of hers. Her smile drooped as she sadly added, "I suppose it must have been quite hard for them to miss out on all these years. Have you ever wondered why we've never spent holidays at your grandmother's home… my childhood home?"

When Maddie shrugged, Jennifer continued, "Because it's filled to the top with magic." She shook her head with a small smile. "Every year they send an invitation, knowing full well what we're going to say. My mother can never resist the chance to point out that I made the wrong decision when it came to your upbringing." She rolled her eyes, and while the words were bitter-sounding, it was obvious to Maddie how much her mum loved her family. It was also obvious how much they loved her, since they always traveled from hours away to visit them during the holidays.

Maddie frowned. "But do I really have to go to some special school to learn magic? Why can't I just stay home and… experiment? I could home-school all my magic stuff and go to my regular school for everything else." She looked at her mother, hope shining on her face. "It's a perfect solution, really."

"There have been wizards who homeschooled," her mother admitted, "a long time ago. But for the most part, it was a rather unsatisfactory education, and they were always in magical homes with magical parents, or at the very least in a good community of wizards that could help. In fact, now it's illegal for underage wizards to practice magic outside of their magical school, which renders homeschooling useless anyway. I don't think anybody does it anymore."

"But I don't want to leave my friends!" Maddie groaned helplessly, her last hope gone.

"It's still summer," her mother reminded her. "You'll have plenty of time to spend with your friends until school starts. And I'm sure you can still call them and write them, and you can be with them while you're home on holidays. We're not sending you into exile, you know!" She laughed. "We're sending you to a top school. I thought you always wanted to do that. Remember all those times when you were little, telling me seriously that you were going to get top grades so that you could be accepted into Oxford? Or how about when you gave me handouts from all the private schools in Britain, and told me that if I loved you that I'd request your immediate admittance?"

"I remember." It had been a dream of Maddie's to go to an excellent private school. But those dreams had always included having her friends with her through it all. However this was something that she somehow knew could never be shared with them. They wouldn't be there to help her with homework, or to laugh at the school bullies. Did magical schools have bullies? She was sure that they did. Being a witch, or wizard she supposed, didn't stop you from being human. She couldn't help a smile. "I just never thought that I would be flying to this school on a magic broomstick."

Her mother barked out a laugh before clapping a hand to her mouth. "It's not like that at all," she assured her daughter. "Now, I would love to take off work and bring you to Diagon Alley to get your school things. Make a proper day of it and all, but I'm afraid we're so busy this time of year that there is no way that my boss will let me take the day off. But… I'm going to phone your Aunt Olivia tonight, and ask if she's willing to take you with her when she takes your cousins shopping." She gave Maddie a wry grin. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled to tell you all about the things that we've been keeping from you all these years."

* * *

Maddie was supposed to be in bed, yet she was tiptoeing into the hallway before hiding in the closet so that she could hear her mum phone Aunt Olivia. She didn't know why she wanted to, since she'd only be able to hear her mum's side of the conversation.

It was either eavesdropping on her mum, or going back to staring at the ceiling all night. Because it wasn't like she was going to fall asleep easily after the day she'd had. As soon as her mother had left the room, she'd texted her two best friends, Bridget and Lucy, and told them to meet her tomorrow at the park that wasn't much of a distance between the three of them. They had both replied fairly quickly, asking if there was anything wrong. Her quick reply only mentioned that she would completely explain tomorrow. She couldn't tell them that she was a witch, but she had to tell them that she wouldn't be coming to school with them next term.

No matter how resigned she was to the fact that she had to attend Hogwarts, and there was nothing that she could do about it, she still felt devastated about the whole rotten thing. The three girls had dreamed for years about going into seventh year together. They had talked about it all the time, and now it was never going to happen. The naive part of her promised herself that she would go to the school because she had no choice, but only spend one year there to learn the basics and then come back home for good.

After all, her parents had only mentioned that she had to learn how to use her powers. It wasn't like she had to master them or anything. One year would be sufficient enough, and then she'd come back to her own normal school with her own normal friends, and it would just become one of those things that she had to live with in life. Besides, she had made it this far without magic. So she could easily live her life without casting a single spell!

She heard a creak in the hallway, and held her breath as she could hear the faint beeping coming from the telephone as her mum dialed her aunt's number. She opened the door by a sliver to hear more clearly, and finally heard her mum's voice.

"Liv?" Her mum said into the receiver. "Yes, it's me, Jenny… Oh, things are quite all right over on this end. How is your family? Well, that's good to hear… Work is going quite well, thank you, although we're busier than ever this summer…" Maddie wished that they would skip past the formalities and get to the good stuff. "Actually, yes, there's a reason I called… No, I told you that everything is quite all right, it's just…" Jennifer hesitated while drumming her fingers nervously on the wall, but Maddie got the sense that her aunt was waiting quietly on the other end.

"Maddie got her letter today." Jennifer finally said, and Maddie couldn't tell if her mum sounded disappointed, relieved, or what. "You know damn well what letter it is, don't play stupid with me!" She laughed, so Maddie guessed that things were all good. "Yes, let's skip the part where you gloat about how the whole family had been right for the past eleven years. I was wondering if you would take Maddie into Diagon Alley when you go shopping for the boys… No, I can't go! No matter how much I want to go with her, my boss will never approve the request because we've been extremely busy lately, and the cheapskate won't hire on extra people… Thank you so much," Jennifer said with a sigh of relief, "that really eases my mind. Yes, I'll send her on the underground with some money and she'll meet you there. Just tell me how much you spent on Walter last year and I'll give her a bit extra… Blimey, inflation is terrible these days!"

The rest of the conversation was just boring talk about money and shopping and other grown-up things that Maddie didn't bother to listen to. She sat there hugging her knees, wondering where Diagon Alley was, and felt excited that she was to take the underground there all by herself. She took out her phone and tried to look it up, but there was no place called Diagon Alley in all of Britain. Logic reasoned that it couldn't be in another country, so she resigned herself to wait and see for herself before turning off her phone and listening for her mother to leave the hallway so that she could slip back into her room.

When her mother finally finished and Maddie heard her go into the bathroom, she opened the closet door quietly - thank God the hinges had just been oiled - and sneaked up the stairs.

Once she was back in her bed, she tried to get to sleep, but just like she had thought, it didn't come easily. One part of her felt so detached from it all - oh, so she was a witch? No problem. She was being sent to a magical school to learn how to hocus-pocus and all that rubbish? Sure, why not? But another part of her was freaking out about it all. How could she be magical? Magic wasn't even supposed to exist. It was supposed to have been what people used to explain science, or a moral tale to scare children in the medieval times. But her mother was making it to seem as if it was a whole other society.

With a million thoughts all jumbled together in her head, Maddie finally fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

 **A huge thank-you to the beta for my first chapter, PenandPaper83, and to Silken Gloves who gave me pointers to further tighten things up!**


	2. A Rather Memorable Shopping Trip

The talk with her friends went just as well as Maddie could have expected. They met in the park before lunch, where she told them that her parents were sending her to a boarding school for the upcoming year.

"What?!" Lucy had protested. "They can't do that!"

"They are," Maddie had replied miserably.

"But everybody at school is going to miss you!" Bridget had cried. This had just made Maddie feel even more horrible, and she ended up crying while her friends tried to comfort her. It was bad enough knowing that she was going to be separated from her two best friends during the school year, but the thought that there would be other people missing her too, students and teachers alike, was almost more than she could bear. So to push the thought out of her mind she changed the subject to something lighter, trying to make the most out of every moment she could spend with her friends.

Aunt Olivia was taking Maddie shopping toward the end of July, and Maddie had mixed feelings about it. While she was excited to ride the underground alone, and of course she loved a good shopping trip, some of the items on the list, which had been the second page of her acceptance letter, confused her. Dragon hide gloves? Brass scales? And the book titles were just as strange sounding, such as _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ and _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection._ She groaned when she saw that she needed a cauldron, and an image popped into her head of herself standing hunched over a cauldron that was spewing smoke, herself cackling and reciting, "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!" She was even required to bring a pointy hat. Great, just great.

At last the day came when Maddie was to go to the mysterious Diagon Alley. Her mum was able to drive her to the station on the way to work, but since her train didn't leave for another hour she would have to wait near the station.

"Are you sure you're going to be all right?" Her mother asked nervously as she pulled up near the station. They had talked a bit on the drive about her waiting, and Maddie really hated seeing her mum so anxious.

"I'll be fine," she smiled. "I know exactly when the train leaves and exactly where I'm to meet Aunt Olivia. I'm sure everything will be fine." She waved goodbye as her mother drove away, and then sat down on a bench to read a book while she waited. She occasionally opened her purse to take out the weird-shaped coins that her mother had given to her for shopping, saying that they were real gold. She had also been given a few silver coins and a few bronze coins, mostly so that she would know what they were but also in case she wanted to pay the exact amounts. _Galleons, Sickles, Knuts. Galleons, Sickles, Knuts._ Mum had only had enough time to tell her the names of each coin, but Maddie had no idea what they were all worth exactly. At least she wouldn't be totally on her own, although she wasn't excited to see her two cousins again. It had been more than enough to see them every Christmas.

After a rather uncomfortable train ride, Maddie finally got out at a station in London. She had been to the city a few times before, but never by herself, and it would have been intimidating if she hadn't spotted her aunt and cousins right away, her aunt waving her arms and her cousins standing a few paces away from her, as if trying to disassociate themselves from her. Despite the fact that she detested her cousins, she couldn't help but feel relieved as soon as she saw them all and ran to meet them.

"Oh, Maddie!" Her aunt exclaimed as she held her tight. Maddie felt a little uncomfortable, but hugged her back. "You've grown so much since Christmas!" Maddie suffered through a few kisses from her aunt before she calmed down again. "I'm afraid that we have to walk a little ways before we get there, so I hope your legs are ready!"

As Aunt Olivia led the way, Ed and Walter came up on either side of her. "So, the Squib's daughter has at least some respectable blood after all," Ed sneered. His short-cropped hair was colored a deep red, a new thing since last Christmas, and even though his brown eyes matched his mother's, they lacked the warmth.

"Shove off her, Ed," his younger brother rolled his eyes. Walter didn't look much different than last time Maddie had seen him, although maybe a little bit skinnier. His glasses still stood perched halfway down his nose, despite his pushing them up several times, and his brown hair kept getting in his eyes, just like his dad's. He was at his gangly, awkward stage, and had kind of a mild, studious air about him. He looked at Maddie kindly. "Glad to see you've joined us. It's been horrible trying to keep everything a secret from you. Now family gatherings are going to be so much more interesting!"

"That's, um, great!" Maddie managed a smile. She realized that maybe she hadn't been entirely fair with her cousins. Maybe they were totally different under everything they had to hide from her. Well, obviously Ed was still horrible, but maybe Walter would end up being halfway decent. At least he was only one year older than she was. Ed was three years older. "It's all a bit overwhelming for me, honestly," she said quietly.

Before Ed could make some kind of mean remark, Aunt Olivia piped in, "Well, that's what we're here to you help you with! We can spend the whole day catching you up to speed for how things work so you won't act like a total muggle when you're at school," she blushed, "no offense to your father or your upbringing, of course, but the fact is that you'll get along much better if you actually know a bit of what you're getting into. Oh, look, here we are!"

They had stopped in front of a small but friendly-looking building with a sign hanging in front of it that said "The Leaky Cauldron Pub and Inn." There were flowers growing in all of the front window-boxes, and the whole building looked like it had been newly renovated. The walls were painted a cheerful pale yellow, the roof was a perfect shade of green that matched the window shutters exactly. In contrast, the two buildings on either side of it, a bookstore and a small thrift shop, looked like they hadn't been painted in several years.

"I still think it's a shame that Hannah gave up the inn to work at Hogwarts, she really improved the place," Aunt Olivia commented. 'It used to look so run down. That would be young Mrs. Longbottom," she added belatedly, as if that would explain everything. "I've heard she's really doing well at the school, though. It's been years since she and Neville got married, but somehow it's hard to see anything but the slightly chubby Hufflepuff who kept her hair in pigtails all the time and used to be so shy. Of course, I was four years older than her so I was long gone by the time she started growing up. Although there were so many back then who were forced to grow up early…" Her eyes took on a faraway look which confused Maddie, but then her aunt seemed to shake herself out of it as she straightened her shoulders. "Well, then. We can't just stand here all day or we'll confuse the muggles. Come on!"

She led them all to the door of the building and it made a pleasant jingling sound as they walked through. Maddie's mouth dropped open. Despite the unassuming exterior of the building, the pub was the strangest place she had ever seen in her life. It was crowded with a bunch of men and women sitting at tables, all in robes and cloaks and either holding wands in their hands or in their pockets. There was a clock hanging on the wall which kept on shouting out the time, and a painting of a lady hanging next to it who had her hands covering her ears and kept on telling the clock to be quiet. The beer was serving itself into mugs before a busy young woman picked them up and served them to various customers. There was even a potted plant in the corner which was singing a song and swaying as if it were drunk, although it shouldn't be possible for plants to sing, let alone become, as her mother would say, "inebriated."

The serving girl saw them and smiled brightly, serving a last mug of beer before coming over to them. "Olivia!" she exclaimed as they hugged. "It seems like the only times I ever get to see you are when you're bringing the children shopping for school." She looked at Maddie curiously. "I didn't know you had a daughter."

"Oh no, this is my niece, Madelyn," her aunt hastily explained. "Maddie, this is Felicia Carne. She was my classmate at Hogwarts," she added, although Maddie had guessed that. She turned back to her friend, gesturing to Maddie. "Her mother was too busy to take her shopping for her first year, so she asked me to take her daughter."

"Skipping out of her duty, eh?" An old man sitting nearby surprised them all with his accusation. "Just like a Trembath."

There was silence in their part of the pub for a moment as the other wizards near enough to hear him stopped talking. Maddie looked up at her aunt curiously, and saw that she had turned pale. Then a hot flush covered her cheeks and she straightened herself, looking away from the man's accusing glare. "Anyway, we had better get going," she smiled at Felicia, although it was forced. "Madelyn's got a lot of shopping to do and we've only got today. I hope we can get together and chat soon?"

Felicia looked embarrassed from the man's rude comment. "Of course. Just tell me whenever you're free, you can floo on over anytime," she said, and they both hugged again before Aunt Olivia grabbed both of her boys by the arm and, deliberately avoiding the gaze of everybody she passed, led the way to the back door.

As they walked into a walled-in courtyard, Maddie asked, "What was that all about?" Even her cousins were silent and stony for once.

Aunt Olivia sighed. "It's nothing, really," she said tiredly. "Just some old animosity toward our family that should have died years ago. Don't worry about it."

"But what was it?" Maddie persisted. "What happened to make that man so -"

"I said don't worry about it!" Her aunt snapped. She shook her head and stopped at the garbage can by the far side of the wall. She took a wand out of her shoulder bag, which was almost astonishing to Maddie as her aunt yelling at her, and touched a seemingly random brick with it. At first nothing happened. But then Maddie watched as the brick quivered, then slipped away, and the bricks all around it were moving, turning and sliding backward until there was an open arch that looked like it had been built there with the rest of the wall, and Aunt Olivia motioned for them to follow her through.

Once she walked through the archway, Maddie completely forgot about the strange encounter in the pub. There were buildings lining the street like any other place, but it gave off a very 19th-century feeling in the cobblestone street and the way that most of the buildings were designed. She couldn't help staring at all the people walking by; more people in long robes and pointy hats for the most part, although she was relieved to see a few people walking down the street in ordinary clothes like herself.

"Mum, I'm going to go join Horace at Weasley's." Ed barely gave his mother a chance to protest before he waved at a boy who looked about his age standing in front of a shop called "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."

"Yeah, and I promised I'd meet Kirk at Potage's," Walter added. "He really messed up his cauldron last year and I'm helping him choose the best replacement."

"Okay, but meet us back at Florian's at four o'clock and I'll buy you kids an ice cream, and make sure you tell your brother -" Aunt Olivia cut off her words, as Walter was already too far away to hear her over the crowd. She gave an exasperated sigh and looked at Maddie. "Well, I guess it's just you and I, then. Where would you like to go first? Here, let me see the list…" and she took Maddie's list of required items from her and scanned the page. "You do have enough money, right? Yes, that should be enough for everything, I can kick in some money if we end up running out. Why don't we go to Madame Malkin's first, it'll take longer to get fitted for your school robes so we might as well kick it out of the way first thing."

They made their way over to Madame Malkin's. Maddie had never gotten formally fitted for anything before, so she was kind of nervous, but it turned out to be a pretty normal-looking place on the inside, just like any nice tailoring shop she had seen in movies. Madame Malkin took her to a girls' fitting room on one side of the building. The only time Maddie yelped during the whole process was when the measuring tape flew up of its own accord and began to measure her.

"Merlin's beard, girl, haven't you ever been measured for anything before?" Madame Malkin exclaimed, but Maddie blushed and said nothing.

They stopped at a few other shops, too: Potage's for a cauldron, Flourish and Blotts for her school books, and Scribbulus Writing Instruments for parchment, quills, and ink, which didn't please Maddie. What with the old-fashioned looking Alley and this old-fashioned equipment, she was not looking forward to being introduced to magic at all. The one really bright spot in her day so far was when she got to pick out a pet to bring. She had the options of a toad, a cat, and an owl. She would not have a disgusting toad, and she had never forgiven the cat they used to have for bringing dead squirrels to their door and killing their pet bird, so, out of her dislike for cats and in memory of her beloved parakeet, she chose a beautiful tawny owl.

"What are you going to name it?" Her aunt asked as they were walking away from Eeylops Owl Emporium.

Maddie shrugged. "I haven't decided yet."

The last shop they had to visit before they were finished was Ollivander's, and it was the place Maddie had the most inner turmoil about. It was where she was going to get her wand, and Aunt Olivia was paying for it. Her aunt had explained as much about wands as she knew, telling Maddie about different wand cores and such, but she still didn't know exactly what to expect.

They walked in, and Maddie had to blink her eyes a few times to get adjusted to the darkness. Once she got her bearings, she was able to get a better look at the room. About halfway into the room was an empty counter with piles of cases on it. Other than that and a small chair, the only things in the room were very tall shelves, lining every wall and reaching the ceiling, full of long, thin cases which she could only guess held wands.

A man got up from under the counter, which almost made Maddie yelp again. He was a little old man, but she got the feeling right away that there was much more to him than there appeared to be at first. "Hello," he said, "good to see you, Olivia. You've got a new Hogwarts student, eh? What's your name?"

"Um, Maddie," she said, "I mean Madelyn, Madelyn Warner." She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and stood a bit straighter.

"Hmm," he said, not impressed, or maybe just not recognizing her name, "Well, let's get you started now, shall we?" He gestured to the chair. "Why don't you just sit right down there and we'll get you measured."

Maddie didn't know why she had to get measured for a wand, but something about the man, who Aunt Olivia whispered was Ollivander, made her not want to question him, and she obediently walked over to the chair. This time when a measuring tape flew up and began measuring her, she didn't utter a sound or even flinch, even when it measured from her ear to her mouth and the tip of her finger to the corner of her eye. Mr. Ollivander was asking her questions the whole time, which made Maddie rather uncomfortable, but she made sure to answer honestly.

After a while, Mr. Ollivander came up to her with four wand cases and gestured for her to stand up. "Let's start you with this wand," he held out the top case for her to take, "Black Walnut, ten and three-eighths of an inch, phoenix feather core."

Maddie reached out for the case cautiously and opened it. She took out the wand, setting the case on the chair, and looked at her aunt, who made a small flicking motion with her hand. Maddie took a deep breath and aimed at the counter. A few sparks sputtered out, but otherwise nothing happened. This didn't faze Mr. Ollivander, who simply took the wand and handed Maddie the next one. "Try this one. Larch, unicorn core, twelve and five-eighths of an inch."

This wand worked better, blasting the books on the desk with a gentle breeze, but still Mr. Ollivander shook his head and said, "Closer, but it's still not quite right." Rather than being put out, he seemed pleased, as if each failed attempt were merely a clue in a scavenger hunt that he had found, bringing him closer to the prize. He took all four cases back to the shelves they came from, apparently knowing that they weren't the right match, and rummaged around before he was satisfied and brought a single case for Maddie to examine.

"I believe this one will do the trick, but I'd like you to see for yourself. Elm, unicorn core, eleven and three-quarters of an inch."

Once Maddie's fingers circled around the wand, she knew that this was the one for her. It filled her with an energy she couldn't even describe, and she could have sworn that it was humming, seemingly in approval. She felt that she didn't even have to flick the wand, but at the same time felt an irresistible urge to cast a spell. She pointed it at a book on the desk and flicked her wrist, only to jump back as an explosion of light burst out of the end of her wand and knocked all of the books over.

Mr. Ollivander smiled. "That's your wand all right. It certainly seems like it has chosen you." He took the case, telling her that she wouldn't need it, they were only for storing the wands on the shelves. Aunt Olivia paid him, and Maddie barely got out a thank you and a good-bye before they left the shop.

"So, what do you think?" Aunt Olivia asked as they walked toward Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

Maddie was studying her wand, marveling at how smooth it felt in her hand. "I don't really know what to think." Magic had come out of a wand. This was real life, and she was doing things that should have been impossible but seemed to be quite normal to everyone around her. "But I'll be doing all the studying I can before school starts. Thank you for getting me that Hogwarts book," she looked up at her aunt. "I guess it'll help to know about the history of the school before I go there. And thank you for buying me my wand," she added belatedly.

"It was my pleasure," Aunt Olivia smiled. "Just like it will be my pleasure to buy you some ice cream before we get you back home. Come on, the boys are waiting."

* * *

 **I would like to thank Silken Gloves for beta-ing this second chapter. You helped make it so much better and tighter and clearer and just generally helped a lot. ^_^**


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